Bottle crates



July 29, 1958 P. c. BRETT ET AL 2,845,196

BOTTLE CRATES Filed Nov. 28, 1955 Fig.1. 2 1

F J ELM Fig.5. 1 +1 will i I E WWII.

United States Patent BOTTLE CRATES Percy Charles Brett, Banstead, and Cecil Roy Brett, Purley Way, England Application November 28, 1955, Serial No. 549,479

Claims priority, application Great Britain December 15, 1954 1 Claim. (Cl. 217-19) This invention relates to bottle crates such as crates for beer bottles, .and has for its object to provide a crate without criss-cross partitions which divide the box into individual bottle compartments, but one which nevertheless will retain the bottles snugly in position and will prevent the bottles accidentally falling out should the crate assume an inclined position. By obviating the partitions a crate can be made much smaller in overall dimensions as compared with a partitioned crate for the same number of bottles, and expense is reduced while the space occupied during storage and transit is also considerably reduced.

According to the invention a crate comprises an opentopped rectangular box having no compartments for individual bottles and having a main elongated retaining ledge on the respective inside faces of the walls and extending from end to end thereof, said retaining ledge lying parallel to the bottom and open top of the crate and located at the height of the shoulder of the bottles for which the crate is designed. A central partition may be provided spanning opposite walls in combination with retaining ledges also parallel to the bottom and open top of the crate at the same height as the main retaining ledge. For example the central partition in one form terminates upwardly above the level of the retaining ledges and is provided with a hand-grip hole above said level, and the central retaining ledges are strip-s secured respectively to the faces of the partition. The ledges may be formed by strips of half-round section wood or the like secured by their fiat faces to their respective walls.

The word bottles includes bottles as such and also jars, all having a main body and a narrower neck with a shoulder leading from the main body into the neck either abruptly as would be made by a radius curve or gently as would be made for example by a conical portion.

Two embodiments of the invention will be described with the aid of the accompanying drawings in which:

Figure 1 is a longitudinal sectional elevation on the line :I-I of Figure 3 of one embodiment;

Figure 2 is a transverse section on the line -II--II of Figure 3;

Figure 3 is a plan view;

Figure 4 is a longitudinal sectional elevation on the line IVIV of Figure 5 showing a second embodiment; and

Figure 5 is a transverse section on the line V-V of Figure 4.

Referring to Figures 1-3 a rectangular open-topped box 1 forming the crate has a strip whose exposed side presents a cam face, said strip for example being a halfround 2 of wood which is nailed to the inside of both long walls of the rectangle and to the inside of both end walls, the strip being at or about the height of the bottle B (shown by broken lines) for which the crate is constructed where the main body of the bottle narrows and tapers to the neck at b to provide a camming shoulder.

In the form shown in all figures the crate is centrally divided by a cross partition 3 to separate the bottles into two halves, e. g. a dozen on each side, the four inner wall surfaces of each half of the crate being all provided with the strips 2. The cross partition 3 in- Figure l-3 is only as high as a convenient distance below the plane containing the strips and the strip formation for the said cross partition 3 is made up by a cylindrical bar 4 spanning the crate from side to side immediately above the top edge of the partition. The bar 4 is wider than the thickness of the partition so that it projects on each side of the partition away from the respective planes of the vertical faces thereof.

in the alternative form shown in Figures 4 and 5 the crate is similarly designated 1, the strips as 2 and the central partition as 3, but the latter terminates upwardly at 5 above the level of the retaining strips 2, where it is provided with a hand-grip hole 6 above said level; the equivalent of the central retaining strip 4 of the previous example is in two parts 2a and 2a (similar to the main retaining strips 2) secured respectively to the faces of the partition 3.

By means of the invention the outside rows of bottles B lodge by their shoulders b underneath the half-round ledges 2 or 2a (or under the strips 2 and bar 4) which prevent their jumping or being moved upwardly towards the open top of the crate. Should the crate be inverted, the shoulders b of the bottles in the outer rows ride on the ledges and cause these marginal bottles to move inwards and press the inner bottles together to prevent these being accidentally dislodged. To remove the bottles it is only necessary to lift out those not engaging the ledges whereupon the marginal rows can be lifted out.

Thus in a crate according to the invention which is divided into two halves to contain a dozen bottles in each half, there would be two blocks of bottles arranged fourby-three of which ten are trapped by the wall strips and only two in the middle left free for extraction in a vertical direction.

We claim:

In an open topped crate having a dividing partition to form compartments with side walls and bottom walls,

' strips positioned in a horizontal plane around the interior side walls of the compartments and along the opposite sides of the dividing partition, said strips being vertically spaced a distance at least greater than one-half the height of the said walls of the compartments, and said strips being formed with a flat side secured to the side walls and said opposite sides of the dividing partition and a curved side projecting into each respective compartment to thereby retain cylindrical articles with reduced neck portions in said compartments when said crate is full and is turned bottom-up.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 456,447 Thiemeyer July 21, 1891 854,244 Smith May 21, 1907 FOREIGN PATENTS 5,805 Great Britain 1915 485,436 Great Britain May 19, 1938 522,368 Great Britain June 17, 1940 

